John Kasich talks about guns, coal, Tom Noe - and communicating with his wife

Darrel Rowland The Columbus Dispatch @darreldrowland

Sunday

Dec 16, 2018 at 5:38 AMDec 16, 2018 at 12:22 PM

Even a governor — and future commentator for, say, CNN? — can have spousal communication issues.

After services for George H.W. Bush wrapped up in the National Cathedral earlier this month, John Kasich took his wife, Karen, to the front of the sanctuary so they could meet former President Jimmy Carter for the first time.

They also ran into Brian Mulroney, the former Canadian prime minister, who delivered Bush's eulogy.

Outside in the cold, Kasich persuaded Mulroney to take him to meet one more person. But Ohio's first lady had never heard of "Vince Charles," so she opted to get back on the warm bus.

When the governor rejoined her a couple of minutes later, he remarked that he couldn't believe she didn't want to meet the future king of England.

That's right: She heard Vince Charles when he said Prince Charles.

Should be fun times once Kasich loses his day job next month and has more time to spend at home.

By the way, Kasich said Mulroney introduced him to the crown prince by saying "he’s going places, and I’m not just talking about Ohio."

Other snippets from a wide-ranging interview with the outgoing Republican governor last week at The Dispatch:

Gun laws

"You will get gun reform when the public says they’ve had enough. Until they’ve said enough, it’s not going to happen. … There’s going to come a point where people say enough of this."

Constitutional amendments

He would support a GOP measure to make changes more difficult "only if they come with the idea of making it easier to get on the ballot with the (initiated statute).

"If it’s not, I think we should reject it, because the public needs to be heard. I’d rather this (trivial) stuff doesn’t go into the constitution, but if you don’t give an alternative, I’m not for shutting (the) people's voice down."

Wisconsin, Michigan antics

Even if Democrat Richard Cordray had won in November, Kasich had no desire to lessen the governor's powers — although he heard "murmurs" that Ohio lawmakers wanted to do just that.

"It’s terrible. If they tried to do that here, I’d be going crazy. You don’t limit the next person’s authority or power. That’s crazy."

Abused tax cut

Kasich acknowledged the "anomaly" that some affluent Ohioans are using business tax cuts to lower their taxable incomes and qualify for government programs meant for poorer Ohioans. "They should fix that," he said of lawmakers, but at the same time expressed skepticism that they would because it could be viewed as a tax increase.

Pardon for Tom Noe

"It hasn’t come to me. No one’s said anything about it. I don’t know what I would do. I mean, I don’t know why.

"I’d have to have recommendations from the head of the prisons, the parole board, all of that kind of stuff."

In November, the Ohio Parole Board recommended a third time that Noe, whose questionable investments of public money in rare coins, Beanie Babies, baseball cards and other unusual items touched off the Coingate scandals nearly 15 years ago, not be granted clemency from his 18-year sentence.

Kasich's 2016 campaign

“There was never enough money, there was never enough publicity.

"The media built (President Donald) Trump into what he is, and now if you tell them that, they’re very angry and say, ‘We didn’t do that.’ They gave him a billion dollars worth of free press; come on.”

The future of coal

"Coal’s on its way out. It’s too expensive.

"... The economics doesn’t work. Nobody’s going to be investing in new coal plants."

Meanwhile, the legislature should back off of stringent set-back requirements for windmills.

Bipartisan yucks

Reporter Marty Schladen notes that in a farewell speech to the Ohio House last week, Rep. Nick Celebrezze, D-Parma, remarked, "Our side of the aisle thought it was a joke when you made Donald Trump your nominee and, let's face it, half of your side did, too."

The ensuing laughter came from both sides of the aisle.

drowland@dispatch.com

@darreldrowland

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